(19 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++PLEASE NOTE AUDIO CONTAINS INFLAMMATORY LANGUAGE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Al Mazraa, Sweida Province, Syria – 19 July 2025
1. Driving shot of smoke rising from a farm
2. Charred building
3. Charred truck and building
4. Charred building
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Abu Addi, Bedouin fighter:
“Anyone who supports the Syrian state is our brother, our target is Al-Hijri (supporters of prominent Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri), who killed the children, women, elderly people, the Bedouin and burned them. The prisoner of war should not be killed; he killed the POWs. We responded to the call from Al-Jazira (canton) from the Al-Mowali tribe and came to Sweida.”
6. Fighters on motorcyles, charred cars in the foreground
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdulaziz AlAziz, Bedouin fighter:
“We came from Deir Ez-Zor from Al-Ikidat tribe. We came to lift the oppression and the persecution because our brothers the Bedouin from the Sweida tribes were subjected to massacres.”
8. Ambulance driving by
9. Pickup truck loaded with fighters
STORYLINE:
The United Nations estimates that more than 87,000 people have been displaced in Syria’s Sweida province since July 12 due to days of heavy fighting between Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes and Druze-linked militias that has left hundreds dead.
The violence that threatens to unravel the country’s post-war transition continued on Saturday, and smoke was seen rising from burning homes and vehicles, and many shops and residential buildings appeared badly damaged.
Scores of tribal fighters from various Syrian provinces have travelled to Sweida to support their Bedouin kin.
One of them, Abdulaziz Al Aziz from Deir Ez-zor, said he came in order to help "lift the oppression and the persecution" of his brethren.
Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Saturday urged the Bedouin tribes to “fully commit” to a ceasefire aimed at ending the violence.
Meanwhile, prominent Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri said that an agreement brokered under the sponsorship of guarantor states contained several measures aimed at de-escalating tensions in Sweida.
They include the deployment of checkpoints outside the province’s administrative borders to contain clashes and prevent infiltration, a 48-hour ban on entry by any party into border villages, and safe, guaranteed passage for remaining members of the Bedouin tribes still inside the province.
Al-Hijri opposes the current government and has distanced himself from the two ceasefires announced on Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the violence has forced entire communities to flee on foot.
Many are now crammed into overcrowded schools, churches and public buildings under dire conditions, it said in a report, adding that infrastructure damage cut electricity, water and telecommunications in much of the area.
The main hospital in Sweida is operating at just 15% capacity due to staff shortages and a lack of fuel.
The United Nations has been unable to bring in much-needed humanitarian and medical aid because of ongoing clashes.
The Druze are a minority in Syria, but form the majority in Sweida province.
The violence first erupted last Sunday between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes.
Government forces intervened, ostensibly to restore order, but ended up trying to wrest control of Sweida from the Druze factions that control it.
Hundreds were killed in the fighting, and some government fighters allegedly executed Druze civilians and burned and looted their houses.
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